Members of the travel industry who attended World Travel Market (WTM) in London earlier this month showed interest in World Design Capital 2014, township tours and luxury travel in Cape Town.
This is according to CEO of Cape Town Tourism (CTT), Enver Duminy, who recently returned from the show. CTT attended the show as part of a delegation from WESGRO and Cape Town Design, the implementing company of World Design Capital 2014.
Duminy said there had been a significant appetite for World Design Capital 2014 information – particularly about the events and design-specific itineraries. He added that operators selling township tours were keen to see the reflection of SA’s twentieth year of democracy in new tours and experiences.
Travel operators in the UK were packaging around cricket and rugby events and there was sustained interest in Cape Town as a food destination, CTT reported. Aside from the long-standing interest from the city’s key source market, the UK, there was a sharp increase in appetite from Indian and Nigerian operators selling Cape Town. Similarly, more enquiries and engagement came from Brazil, Switzerland and Sweden.
According to CTT, some of the areas of concern among the trade included safety and price.
“Cape Town is definitely still on the bucket list for travellers but we have to work on increasing access through well-packaged, value-for-money offers and we have to respond to their hunger for information with exciting content about Cape Town,” said Duminy. “This is something that all our tourism partners can support through their own marketing and content platforms.”
Cape Town’s year-long World Design Capital 2014 calendar of events was launched at WTM and can be accessed here.
